Days of Palestine, London –Amnesty International UK Campaigns’ Manager Kristyan Benedict likened on Wednesday Israeli occupation with ISIL.
Benedict posted a twee on his Twitter account in which he used a hashtag comparing the Israeli occupation with the extremist Islamists created by the United States to undermine revolutions in Iraq and Syria.
He tweeted: “Israeli regimes response to our Gaza report: Amnesty is ‘a propaganda tool for Hamas and other terror groups.’”
Israeli regimes response to our Gaza report: Amnesty is “a propaganda tool for Hamas & other terror groups” (#JSIL?) http://t.co/gqwN9O2JrK
— kristyan benedict (@KreaseChan) November 5, 2014
The hashtag he used is #JSIL is used on Twitter to compare the Israeli occupation with ISIL by replacing ‘Islamic’ with ‘Jewish’ in the renown acronym referred to the group’s name.
Amnesty responded in a statement: “This tweet was made in a personal capacity by a member of staff. It is being investigated internally. We take issues of social media misuse very seriously.”
The Jewish Leadership Council said: “For the campaigns manager of Amnesty International to compare Israel to the Islamic State raises serious concerns about Amnesty’s own partiality and discernment.”
However, human rights activists at the same time raised concerns that Amnesty International might take a disciplinary measure against Benedict under the pressure of the Zionist Lobby.
“This raises concerns about freedom of speech and freedom to impart opinion using the social media platform, which must be the freest means of expressing opinions,” Lawyer Allen Christ said.
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